1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the manipulation of stored data, more particularly to systems and methodologies for the capture, transmission, management, storage, retrieval and display of document images in a shared-system environment using the Internet or other network.
2. Background of the Present Invention
Since the introduction of paper, there has been the problem of storing documents and making them readily available for later use. As society entered the Information Age, an ever growing mountain of paper documents became increasingly difficult to store and manage. Certain document-intensive industries, such as banking, have come under increasing pressure to manage this problem.
With the advent of the computer and increasing data storage capabilities, text and image-based data are now being electronically stored at an even greater pace. Since geographical images require considerably more storage space and processing power to manipulate than a simpler text-based system, conventional commercial computer systems heretofore have been unable to adequately service this growing segment of the industry, e.g., due to inadequate storage capacities on other technological bottlenecks. An additional problem with image-based information is the inability at present to search the graphical image itself and the need to correlate the image with sufficient relevant text-based data to permit search or query capability and retrieval.
Conventional models for document imaging systems involve usage of imaging equipment and software at a single central facility, e.g., at a hospital or bank, under the control and direction of a central computer at that facility. Under this model, however, companies having multiple offices, desiring to centralize their records, have to ship their documents (either physically or electronically) to a central computer for centrally storing all of the documents and permitting access via phone or other dedicated lines.
Despite the advent of networking, e.g., local area networks or LANs and now the Internet, this central computer model has nonetheless retained hold. With the emergence of the Internet as a platform for commerce, however, new paradigms of operation became possible. Instead of companies investing heavily in equipment and manpower to support the scanning, indexing and storage of their own documents, companies could eliminate this entire overhead by outsourcing these and other data management functions. Applicants have recognized the need for this and other such services and have designed an improved system and methodology for servicing this heretofore unrecognized but greatly desired need.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an improved system and methodology for document storage, management and retrieval.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an improved remote distributed capture system, eliminating the need to ship documents to a central point for processing.